--- description: Instead of tapping the screen to flap sideways, you tap the screen to propel yourself up. title: Swing Copters, the Next Game from Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32cbd363493b1dae/6986a024f983e756bb04f4a0/swing-copters.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Take a Gander at Swing Copters, the Next Game from Flappy Bird's Creator by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 19, 2014 4:05 PM CUT  Swing Copters by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 19, 2014 4:05 PM CUT The creator of _Flappy Bird_‘s next game is upon us, and it’s called _Swing Copters_. It’s another single-tap game from designer Dong Nguyen that’ll arrive this Thursday, August 21\. It’s free to play with ads, or if you like, Nguyen will let you pay $0.99 to remove them. In the game, you play a little bug-eyed dude wearing a Tweedledee propeller hat. Above you lie open spaces between girder-like platforms that jut from the screen’s edges. Tap the screen and up you go, slewing to one side or another so that you have to course-correct continuously. On either side of the opening hang hammers that threaten your passage, swinging to and fro like blunt pendulums. The hammers seem like the later stages of certain _Flappy Bird_ vamps, specifically even more insanely difficult versions of that game where the pipes moved up and down. TouchArcade [laid hands on the game](http://toucharcade.com/2014/08/18/exclusive-hands-on-with-swing-copters/ "undefined") ahead of its rollout, putting up a video illustrating what it looks like in action (that’s it above). The object is braincell-stupefyingly simple: clear gates, then trump your gates-passed score, just like your pipes-passed one in _Flappy Bird_. There’s a medal system, too, presumably bronze, silver or gold, though the guy in the video never manages to clear enough gates to clinch one. It _does_ look harder than _Flappy Bird_, but then try flipping your screen on its side as you watch the video, and I suspect you’ll agree that it looks an awful lot like a vertical remaster of _Flappy Bird_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3144743/swing-copters-flappy-bird/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3144743/swing-copters-flappy-bird/"},"headline":"Take a Gander at Swing Copters, the Next Game from Flappy Bird's Creator","datePublished":"2014-08-19T16:05:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:59.640Z","description":"Instead of tapping the screen to flap sideways, you tap the screen to propel yourself up.","url":"https://time.com/3144743/swing-copters-flappy-bird/","keywords":["Tech","Video Games","Flappy bird"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32cbd363493b1dae/6986a024f983e756bb04f4a0/swing-copters.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32cbd363493b1dae/6986a024f983e756bb04f4a0/swing-copters.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"swing-copters","caption":"Swing Copters","creditText":"Swing Copters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3144743/swing-copters-flappy-bird/","name":"Take a Gander at Swing Copters, the Next Game from Flappy Bird's Creator"}}]}] ```